Gift Card Holders

We've all seen these at the store. And we pay 4 bucks a pop for them. Well, no more!

My sister was at a crafty-fair-thingamajig and saw some, um, less than stellar examples.

So she shot me an email wondering if I could make some.  

Of course I can!

After scouring the 'net I found a wonderful (read: EASY) tutorial over at Two Peas in a Bucket.

They have a little template for you to print out and everything!

Do you love them as much as I do?!

*Giveaway* from Once Upon A . . .Sketch!

You have a chance to win this gorgeous album kit featuring

Melissa Frances 5th Avenue Collection...

Wow, right?!

CLICK HERE for guidelines and to enter!!! Good luck!

Believe

Happy Friday!

 I'm here with a new card and my first ever submission to
 Sugar Creek Hollow.

It definitely won't be my last!

I was pointed in the direction of
 Sugar Creek Hollow
 by some fabulous fellow card makers.

 They hold weekly challenges and invite anyone who loves this style to participate.

Their style is vintage, shabby, and primitive and I AM LOVING IT!

This week's challenge is Stripes & Spots and here is what I came up with :

Forgive the photo quality, it's a rainy day here in sunny south Florida!

The stamps are Cloud9 Design.

They just screamed "vintage" to me, so into my shopping basket they went.

I also made my very first stick pin - isn't it gorgeous? 

I may or may not have raided my daughter's bead collection for those beads.

(She has a bajillion of them, so I'm sure she won't mind.)

Thanks for taking a look at my card, 

and make sure to check out Sugar Creek Hollow 

if these challenges sound like fun to you!

(All papers used are DCWV.)

Heartfelt Thanks

To our veterans, past and present - I thank you.

To every service man and woman in every little corner of the world - I thank you. 

To your families, who love and miss you more than you can imagine - I thank them, too. 

Happy Veteran's Day!

Christmas Mini Cards with Spellbinders

Hello, my name is Melissa and I am addicted to Spellbinders Nestabilities.

 I mean really, what can't  you do with these dies?

 Today I'll show you how I make mini cards. (They'd also make adorable gift tags, wouldn't they?)

Let's get started!

You can use any die you like, I love Labels 3 and Labels 4 for mini cards.

The Eyelet Circles set is really fun, so I'll use that one for my example.

First, take a piece of 8 1/2x11 paper and score & fold at 4 1/4.

 This way you can make up to three cards with one piece of paper.

 I love using Kraft for these little cards because it's very versatile and sturdy.

Fold your paper in half and line up with the folded edge just inside the cutting edge of the die.

Make the "sandwich" compatible with your machine and let 'er rip.

That was it! It was that easy. An adorable little mini card that you can now decorate to your heart's content.

What is your favorite Spellbinders project?

$250 Lego Giveaway!

Just a little sweepstakes I thought I'd pass along.

 If you, like me, have a boy then you know they love few things more than Legos!

Good luck!

www.getsubmit.com/enter/sweepstakes_refer/209/1272

From Scraps to Treasure

Scraps. We all have them. Those odd little bits left over from layouts, mini albums, and other special projects.

What to do with them? If you're anything like me, it's a CRIME to even think about throwing them away.

I've compiled a list of things to do with the leftovers :

• If you have children, you know they love to use your "stuff". Make a special craft box just for them and fill it periodically with your leftovers.  Don't have kids? Give them to a niece, nephew (boys are crafty, too!), coworker, or neighbor.
• Bag them up and donate them to a preschool/daycare/church. They do a lot of art projects on a very limited budget. You could even take it one step further and make some die cuts out of your scrap paper.
• Have a crafty friend? Swap scraps!
• Scrapbook.com hosts a monthly layout challenge where you create a layout using ONLY your scraps. It's a great way to make a dent in your pile and kind of forces you to think outside the box.
• Banners are so popular on layouts. Use your scraps to make a few to have on hand.
• Make your own flowers. Yes, premade flowers are divine, but they are also expensive. You can find a bajillion tutorials online, so what are you waiting for?
• Make your own gift tags, cupcake toppers, greetings cards.

Wait. Did someone say greeting card? That's exactly what I did. I've been doing some Christmas projects lately and noticed my holiday scrap stash was reaching epic proportions. So I took a few pieces of random patterned paper, solid cardstock, pearls, paper alphas, ribbon, and my ever-present dollar store leaves & flowers and made a card.

I did use one "new" item for this card - the doodle twine from doodlebug design.

 Oh, it is FABULOUS. And, yes, I'll take one in every color.

So, what do you do with your scraps?

Thanksgiving Placecards

I was "hired" by a dear friend to make these placecards. Can you imagine . . . getting paid to play with paper?

 It's an absolute dream come true! I hope she'll send me a photo of her holiday table.

It was an easy, but somewhat time consuming process. I started with a 4x4 inch piece of patterned cardstock, scored and folded in half. I used a font downloaded from dafont.com for the names. Once all of the flowers were made and the branchy leaves were cut it was just a matter of glue. Lots and lots of glue. 

Products used : Spellbinders {Foliage, Rose Creations, and Labels Four}. Recollections Paper Pack {Night & Fall}.

 Stickles {Diamond}. Tim Holtz Distress Ink {Vintage Photo}.

 Those adorable leaves are from the Dollar Tree.

I used my Martha Stewart Scoring Board to make the box.